How to make collaborations work

Collaborations, everyone agrees is essential to move-forward, achieve-greater-good and be successful. Collaboration is all about working with someone to produce something remarkable. For an intrapreneur, collaborations are the critical element of the system to build a remarkable craft.

Collaborations succeed when the contributions and associated value-additions from all parties are mutually respected and recognized. Though well-intentioned, many-a-times, you end-up meeting people, partners, and peers who tend to overvalue their own contributions and undervalue those of others. Many professional relationships disintegrate when people involved, feel that their partners are not giving them the credit they deserve or doing their fair share.

Responsibility bias – exaggerating our own contributions relative to other’s inputs has to be curtailed for making collaborations work. Cut the desire to see and present yourself positively at every possible opportunity. Instead, learn to be factual and make your partners’ contributions shown and perceived positively, at every possible opportunity.

You naturally have more access to information about your own contributions than that of others. You will see all your efforts, but will only witness a subset of partners’ efforts. When you think about who deserves the credit, you have more knowledge of your own contributions. To make collaborations work, develop insights into partners’ inputs and contributions; understand their constraints and dependencies too. Develop mutual respect and extend-helping-hand in all steps of collaboration.

The multiplicity of the value of contributions makes your craft, remarkable. Keep that as the core purpose of collaboration. It helps in keeping responsibility bias away and information deficits at check. Build bridges than barriers for collaboration to work.